Page 7 of Seized by the Alien Space Warrior (Alien Romance #8)

Chapter Seven

A va’s eyes were glued shut, but a jostle on her shoulder sent pain ripping through her. Her eyes snapped open and the fog inside her head fled to see a dark grey face hovering over her. She screamed, flailing at the hands that were on her chest, pushing them aside, legs kicking, fighting against whatever held her down.

“Female. Desist!”

Like she was going to obey. She struggled, ignoring the torture shooting down her arm. Tears streamed down her face and her chest tightened as she hyperventilated. Raw terror heated her blood and made her fight harder.

Fingers closed about her wrists. She struggled as someone much stronger held her wrists at her abdomen, stopping her from hitting out. A sound wheezed in her ears, something crossed between a wounded animal and an enraged beast.

She realised that sound came from her.

“Ava!”

The command rang out and echoed in her head loud enough to shock away the panic. She drew in a breath and her throat scorched with burning plastic. Tears filled her eyes as she coughed, each jerk wrenching her shoulder.

Concerned golden eyes peered at her. The eyes reminded her of a cougar, watching her in an unerringly similar way. A bright tawny colour, strobed with flecks of emerald green and an elongated black pupil similar to a cat’s eye focussed on her with piercing intensity from a totally alien face.

His skin was a matte, dark grey. A charcoal colour with an undertone of iridescent deep blue, similar to that found in a peacock’s feather. His eyes were deep set, the structure of his face made of sharp angles. His nose was a straight blade, thin and long and was set over a pair of lips that, despite being pulled into a firm line, were still plump enough to be full. The top lip was thin, the lower lip shaped by a squarish cut. High, prominent cheek bones lent his face a regal look, but the most stunning feature of his face were the rows of delicate bumps that framed his eyes in an arc.

Three sets of bumps, one on the left, centre, and right of his head began in the middle of his forehead and went over the top and sides of his skull. Golden light flashed from the base of each bump before fading to nothing. With an unexpected start, she realised he was quite handsome. For an alien.

It was shock. It had to be shock.

His brow lowered, making the nodes come together into a point in the middle of his forehead and he scrubbed a hand over them as though washing them away before bringing his attention back to her. “Ava. I have to get you out of the harness.”

“Harness?” She found herself pressed tight in a chair by straps over her shoulders and around her hips. She was also leaning slightly forward and on an angle. In front of her was a sparking control panel filled with complicated buttons and flashing lights. Above that was a dark rectangle of glass fissured with a network of whitened cracks. The air was thick with smoke and the tang of burning plastic made it hard to breath.

“Our craft crashed. I need to get you out of the harness before it catches fire,” he said.

“Craft?”

Why she was on a craft, she had no idea, but her brain threw up his name. Aekon. Mercy Division. He’d rescued many human females. He’d killed the lion-yeti who’d been about to harm her. Came into the confining, terrifying darkness and stopped him with a blade through the beast’s neck. Just like that.

At heart, Ava was a pacifist, but now she felt no reticence. It had been her or that beast and she had a killing machine on her side.

An alien killing machine.

She’d never been one to believe in aliens, or tales of abductions, but hers was the kind of abduction no-one returned from. The realistic kind where people were taken for the purpose of bad, bad things.

Awakening to the face of a crocodile to be forced naked on a stage to an audience of creatures and sold to a lion-yeti pretty much was proof beyond dispute. Now was not the time for hysterics or checking out of reality. If crawling to the top of the fitness industry in New York had taught her anything, it was to fight for what she wanted. And she wanted to live. She had to get out of this harness before they both suffocated to death. Shock could come later.

Years of physically draining work and the steel-hard mindset it took to get to the top allowed her mind to focus. She ignored her screaming shoulder and shaking limbs, gritted her teeth, and nodded.

Aekon guided the thumb of her good hand to a divot in the middle of the circular disk located over her abdomen. “Can you press here? It will release the harness and leave me free to catch you.”

Being on the angle they were, she would fall straight out of the chair and onto the edge of the control panel. He stood just below her, but at an awkward tilt given. An air of urgency surrounded him like a second skin. She let out a shaky breath. Questions later.

Focus, Ava. Focus.

“Okay.”

His palm firmed over the top of hers, although it was much larger. His fingers were long and strong. His lethal black claws gleamed in the low light, emerging from where his fingernails would normally be. Inbuilt blades that were a natural extension of him.

She gulped and glanced up at his concerned gaze.

“I will try not to hurt you, little female,” he said, “but prepare yourself. If I could have reset your shoulder before now to save you this pain, please know I would have done.”

A small smile flashed across her lips as she thought of the numerous injuries she’d suffered while she’d put her body through hell. Besides, wherever they were, even if it was on the verge of catching fire, was better than the rape room. He’d already saved her and he was still concerned for her wellbeing. At the moment, a dislocated shoulder was the least of her worries.

She fell into his gorgeous golden globes that watched her so carefully. “Thank you.”

His eyes widened, as though he was surprised, then his expression shuttered and tight lines bracketed his mouth. “Do not thank me. Brace yourself, female.”

Ava steeled herself, but often the best way to do something undesirable was to just do it without overthinking. She pressed the little divot. The straps retracted. Pain ripped through her shoulder as she slammed into Aekon’s solid chest. His arms of steel supported her back and under her knees. She fought off the black dots edging her vision and was vaguely aware of Aekon carrying her out of the cabin and into a tight corridor where he came to a halt and cursed.

“What…is it?” she asked.

Her limbs wouldn’t stop shaking and her stomach swelled with a protesting need to vomit.

“I needed to secure the hatch when we boarded. I will have to set you on your feet to open it.” Aekon’s deep rumble of a voice helped her to focus.

Smoke clogged her eyes and lungs, filling her mouth with a foul taste. They would suffocate if they didn’t get out.

“Okay.”

Aekon slid her to her feet. Her legs threatened to buckle beneath her but he kept a strong arm about her waist for which she was grateful. His body was like carved granite. Despite the horrible smell of burnt plastic, she caught a hint of enticing warm spice rolling from his body.

Her feet slid on the floor, which was tilted at a concerning angle, or was it her limbs weren’t really responding to her wishes. Her mind was so fuzzy, she wasn’t quite sure. He firmed his grasp about her waist, pressing her tight against his body until she was flush against him. As tall as she was, he was bigger. Much, much bigger. Her cheek pressed against his unyielding pec, the top of her head coming to just over his shoulder. He was just under a head taller than she was. His chest was a wall of well-developed flesh, the biceps that held her steady thicker than the top of her thigh.

He withdrew a dagger from seemingly nowhere, hidden in his suit, and levered a small screen from the wall beside the hatch. There was a clatter as he tossed the screen to the floor. Inside was some sort of a large computer chip that was a conglomeration of silver strips of embedded metal and flashing lights. He dug the tip of the dagger into the strips of metal, working them from the base of the chip.

A sizzle and a series of sparks erupted from somewhere overheard. Caustic black smoke poured from an opened vent and the tips of flames licked over the edge of the tear.

Aekon worked the chip from the hole. The lights flashed on the chip before the whole thing died with an eruption of black smoke. A sound of dismay left her lips. He peered down at her, brow nodes draw tight. “Calm, little female. I won’t let anything happen to you.’

Ava wondered how he could even say that when they were trapped in a small enclosed space with flames and corrosive smoke stealing the oxygen from the air. Still holding her gently to his side, he thrust the tip of the blade in the crack between the wall and the hatch.

A hiss sounded. The air popped about her and a crack appeared in the frame. The blade disappeared back into a pocket and he worked his claws into the crack. He pushed the hatch open with a grunt.

Fresh air gushed over her, whipping the stench of the flames away and she drew in a blessed deep breath. Aekon’s arm went behind her knees. He picked her up and hovered on the cusp of the door.

She reached up to clasp his shoulder. The power of his muscles pulsed beneath her fingertips. Frigid fresh air enveloped her on one side, while the side of her body against his was caressed with warmth. Stars lit the night sky above in a brilliant sparkling display as they stood on the cusp of the threshold.

She glimpsed the shadows of a vast rocky outcrop and the distant glow of city lights before Aekon leapt and they free-fell downwards.